HCA execs in big options transactions

Dear iam46yearsold: Where do you or did you work for HCA and what was your job there? Yea, they run a good company at no equipment and very short staffing along with unethical dealings, attempting to place the nurses in a position of liability. I worked for a small county hospital in Texas were I was the director of the ED. HCA bought out this facility. At the time they did not want to take any non funded patients if they did not have to, so they were trying to come up with some innovation ways to prevent these patients from getting into the system. This was just as a law came out requiring everyone who comes to the emergency department to have a minimum of a medical screening exam. They hired a bunch of lawyers from Vincent and Elkins (big firm in Houston) to help them figure out how they could get around this law. They were trying to come up with some definition of "medical screening exam" which was stupid as it was already outlined under the law. In any case, we go into this big meeting and they start telling me that the nurses at triage will be performing the medical screening exams. If the nurse does not feel it is an emergency, the patient is sent away. I thought I was going to have a STROKE. I told the administration along with the attorneys (who by the way had never read the nurse practice act), that there was no way what so ever that the nurse at the triage desk would be performing the medical screening exams. This is practicing medicine without a license and goes directly against the law. In addition, it places the nurse at great liability. I guarantee you that if they had gone ahead with this policy, the first screw up and the nurse would have been hanging out to dry be herself. I had to read the nurse practice act to them and informed them in no uncertain terms that the nurses in that ED would not be doing this and if they tried to make them, they would all walk out. Additionally, I told them that I would report this event to the BNE and to the state health department. I thought the CEO was going to come across the podium and assault me. I got the hell out of that place as soon as I could. This is not the only example. They replaced our best physician group with some kind of group that had been thrown out of every other place they had tried to practice. I mean the care took a major nosedive and complaints went up. It was sad because it was a great ED, with great patient care and great outcomes. It all went down the drain with HCA. All they care about is $$$$ and I think it is unethical to make a profit for share holders on the backs of sick people. I will never work for any kind of for profit hospital again. They are in the lowest area of Dante's hell.